Parents tackle Ogun school over incisions on children’s bodies

Parents tackle Ogun school over incisions on children’s bodies

Two parents have accused a private school in the Arepo area of Ogun State of carrying out unauthorised incisions on their children’s bodies.

The parents explained on Tuesday that the incision resulted in health complications in their children.

One of the affected parents, Abosede, the mother of a four-year-old young boy identified simply as Alamis, said she discovered the incision on her son’s stomach on March 2.

She claimed to have initially noticed the mark after Alamis complained of persistent itching on the side of his stomach.

Abosede explained that three weeks after discovering the mark, her son fell ill and had to be taken to the hospital, where doctors confirmed that the incision had caused an infection.

She said, “On March 2, my son started to complain that a side of his stomach was etching him. When I checked, I saw an incision on his body. When I asked what happened, he said he did not know who did it. When I saw the incision, it looked like he was sleeping when they did it because the marks were not straight.

“He talks a lot, so if he was conscious, he would tell me who did it. The third week after I saw it, he fell sick and I took him to the pharmacy and from there took him to the hospital where they said the incision caused the infection. They later prescribed some drugs which he used and was later getting better.”

Her concerns, however, grew when another parent, whose daughter attends the same school, reported a similar mark on her child’s body.

“The following day, I took him to my shop to monitor him. While I was in the shop, another parent who enrolled her daughter in the school came and told me she found a similar incision on her daughter’s body. I am a Muslim and my son attends only Arabic and home lessons. The woman is a Christian, so the only connection between her daughter and her son is the school.”

Speaking on a similar discovery, Oluwatoyin Adurogboye said she noticed some changes in her three-year-old daughter, Karla, when she returned from school on February 28, adding that she thereafter fell sick.

According to her, Karla had just recovered from malaria and an infection a week earlier. When her condition worsened, they rushed her to the hospital, where she was placed on oxygen due to breathing difficulties.

She said, “I went to pick her up from school on February 28 and anytime I picked her up, we arrested always gifting but that very day, she got in the cat and she slept off inside the car. She slept for six to seven hours that day. When we got home that day, I pulled her uniform and saw a scratch on her spine but I thought it was just a scratch. So, I  left her with my sister and nephew and went to my store.  While I was in the store, my sister called me three different times that she was still sleeping and also running temperature. Meanwhile, she was treated for malaria and infection a week before then.

“When I got home, she still had high temperature. Even when she woke up, she was not active. The following morning, she started coughing and vomiting. We later took her to the hospital and we ran a test but the doctor said there was no malaria or infection in her body.

We later took her home but the situation got worse and we went back to the hospital and she was admitted and placed on oxygen after the doctor discovered she had shortness of breath.”

She however disclosed that while in the hospital, she noticed the mark again and when she asked her about it, she tried to say something but could only mutter ‘my teacher’ five times before stopping.

She said,  “While in the hospital, I saw the mark again and when I asked her, she said my teacher five times and couldn’t talk again. It was when we got home and I asked her again, that she said it was her aunty that put pepper on her back in the school bathroom.

“I called my husband and sent the picture to him. I also showed my sister and they all confirmed it was an incision. I did not put an incision on my child’s body and it was when I got to Mrs Abosede she confirmed it on her son’s body too.”

The two mothers thereafter took their complaints to the school, but they claimed the proprietress denied any wrongdoing.

According to Karla’s mother, the proprietress told them to consider other places where their children might have got the marks, insisting that it did not happen in the school.

She added that when she requested to review the CCTV footage, the proprietress informed them that the cameras had not been functioning for several days.

“We also requested that she call her workers so that my daughter could identify the person but she declined. We went to the station the following day and they invited her and she said again that she had checked the footage and that she could not find anything. When we asked her to play the footage, she only played it from the hours of 10 am to 12:15 pm. When asked what happened between 12: pm and 2 pm, she said there was no light and my husband immediately told her that the school has an inverter. Then, she said again that the inverter was not working that day.”

While Abosede’s family dragged the school to court, Karla’s parents called on the authorities to investigate the development, while also insisting on seeing the remaining part of the CCTV.

The proprietress did not respond to calls made to her phone. However, she sent a text message, stating she would return the call. She had yet to do so as of the time this report was filed.